The Florida archipelago, and the neighboring keys and islands of the West Indian seas, have been the resort of freebooters from an early period. The security they afforded, as a place of retreat from discovery, gave these points great eminence, as the centre of operations for a large, bold, and ruthless band of sea-rovers. Their piratical expeditions swarmed over the adjacent waters, and desolated the neighboring coasts of the Gulf of Mexico and the Spanish West Indies. This brotherhood of outlaws were termed Bucaniers. They hailed from France, England, and Holland. They led a life of plunder; and reduced piracy to a profession, regulated by its own laws and customs, which had all the force of martial law among themselves. The existence of these desperate men as a class was owing to the exclusive and arbitrary measures of the Spanish government, through which, they endeavored to secure and maintain the exclusive control of the commercial resources of the New World. In war, the Bucaniers preyed on commerce as commissioned privateers; in peace, they resorted to hunting wild cattle, and contraband trade against the Spanish. Finally, they entered upon a course of open piracy and plunder. They are said to have originated on this wise. Soon after the Spanish conquests on the Main had secured the fertile plains of Mexico and extended over it the Spanish power, the island of Cuba was nearly depopulated by a tide of emigration setting into the newly acquired territory. The emigrants left their cattle behind. These, in course of time, multiplied prodigiously. The hills and valleys of the island of Cuba were at length covered with herds of wild cattle; and it was soon found profitable to hunt them for their hides and tallow alone. The first who engaged in this business were French. The distinctive term applied to these men, had its origin in their customs. Bucanier is supposed to be a derivative of the Carib word “boucan,” by which the Indians designated flesh prepared for food by its being smoked and dried slowly in the sun. The hunters prepared the flesh of the slaughtered cattle for food in this way. From this circumstance, the term “Bucanier” was first applied to the hunters; and subsequently, it was used to designate all such as followed a contraband trade, or were engaged in a predatory life upon the sea or shore. The Bucaniers, at first, made the island of Tortuga their head-quarters. But the settlement being obnoxious to the Spaniards, they seized the first opportunity to destroy it. This dispersed the company, who sought other places of refuge; and from thence they worried the Spanish settlements, actuated by motives of revenge. Several places and Spanish towns were compelled to submit to the degradation of purchasing the forbearance of the Bucaniers, by paying them contributions, equivalent to black-mail levied by the banditti of Scotland.